Germania: The Ancient Germans in Greek and Roman Sources: Geography, Society, Warfare, Religion, and Customs

The ancient Germans occupied lands extending from the river Rhine east to the Vistula and from the Danube north to Scandinavia. Their homelands formed the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire, but despite large-scale military and political efforts, the Romans never conquered or fully subjugated the territory they called Germania.

Greek and Roman records provide extensive evidence for the Germanic peoples. These accounts explain the origins, culture, religious beliefs, trade relations, and social practices of the Germans that lived within and beyond the northern frontiers. This book includes early Greek legends regarding the Odyssey, the campaign descriptions of Julius Caesar, the Germania of Tacitus, ethnographic details from the encyclopaedic work of Pliny the Elder and much more besides. The barbaric customs, sacrifices and superstitions of the Germanic people are conveyed in these sources along with Roman prejudices and fears.

The Romans first encountered the Germans in the second century BC when tribes from the Jutland Peninsula migrated south towards the Alps and threatened to overrun Italy. The legions defeated the Cimbri and Teutons, but the Germanic threat remained. In the 50s BC, Julius Caesar fought against the Germans in his conquest of Gaul and was the first Roman general to cross the Rhine. His successor, the Emperor Augustus, sent the legions into Germania to conquer and occupy territories as far as the Elbe. But in AD 9, under the leadership of the war-chief Arminius, the German tribes rebelled and slaughtered three legions in the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans withdrew to the Rhine and Danube rivers, establishing heavily militarized frontiers facing the Germanic lands. Subsequent emperors launched military campaigns against the northern tribes, but the greater part of Germany remained permanently unconquered. The Germans who broke this impasse were the Goths, Vandals, Franks, Angles and Saxons. They breached the frontiers in Late Antiquity and established new homelands in former Roman territories.

This is the first book to present the ancient sources for the Germans. It will be a unique and valuable resource for future scholarship.